'EXJJHRB  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA^ 


JOHN  HENKf  NASH  LIBRARY 

SAN  FRANCISCO  <8> 

PRESENTED  TO  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

ROBERT  GORDON  SPROUL,  PRESIDENT. 


MR.ANDMRS.MILTON  S.RAV 
CECILY,  VIRGINIA  AND  ROSALYN  RAY 

AND  THE 

RAY  OIL  BURNER  COMPANY 


TYPE  SPACING 
BYE.R.CURRIER 


J.  M.  BOWLES  •  NEW  YORK 


O  make  the  printed  page  as 
effective  as  possible,  by  the 
simplest  possible  means,  is 
perhaps  the  clearest  state- 
ment that  we  can  make  of 
the  whole  function  of  typo- 
graphic art.  For  its  accom- 
plishment there  must  be  a 
technique  of  typography, 
clearly  distinguished  from  the  merely  mechanical 
operations  of  typesetting.  All  the  particulars  of 
this  technique  may  be  summed  up  in  the  one  all- 
inclusive  word  Spacing,  since,  broadly  speaking, 
type  cannot  be  set  without  being  spaced.  But  the 
spacing  of  type,  in  so  far  as  it  relates  to  effective- 
ness in  typographic  arrangement,  means  more 
than  simply  putting  type  into  a  stick.  It  means 
space  adjustment,  whether  in  the  layout,  on  the 
galley,  or  in  the  proof.  It  means  the  orderly  con- 
trasting of  white  with  black  space  for  the  sake  of 
legibility,  decorative  quality,  and  "attention  value." 
It  means  making  distinctions,  as  for  example  be- 
tween the  use  of  the  four-  and  the  five-em  space, 
the  one-  and  the  two-point  lead,  between  letter- 
spacing  and  no  letter-spacing,  between  setting  flush 
and  indenting.  In  short  it  means  knowledge  and 
application  of  all  the  little  touches  which  the  eye 
of  the  trained  typographer  notes  as  essential  to 
perfect,  or  at  least  excellent,  work. 

Now  how  many  ways  are  there  of  adjusting  space 


in  typography  ?  Analysis  shows  three,  which  must 
be  considered  not  so  much  as  "  ways ' '  merely,  but  as 
fundamental  elements,  in  fact  as  the  three  univer- 
sals  of  typographic  arrangement.  They  are  Spac- 
ing (in  its  specific  sense),  or  the  adjustment  of 
words;  Leading,  or  the  adjustment  of  tines;  and  In- 
dention. Logically,  the  spacing  of  letters  should  be 
included  in  this  classification,  but  it  is  omitted  here 
for  the  reason  that  it  cannot  be  regarded  as  a  uni- 
versal element.  At  the  same  time  letter-spacing  is 
of  far-reaching  importance,  and  much  special  con- 
sideration might  be  given  it  under  a  separate  head. 

The  space  between  words  in  ordinary  Roman 
lower  case  which  secures  greatest  comfort  to  the 
eye,  and  therefore  the  normal  space,  is  generally 
accepted  to  be  the  three-em.  This  amount  is  usu- 
ally sufficient  also  for  the  lower  case  of  Gothics 
(Sans-serif),  Boldfaces,  and  other  display  types. 
Condensed  faces  will  of  course  require  proportion- 
ately less  and  capitals  proportionately  more  space. 

But  exception  should  be  made  to  the  use  of 
the  three- em  as  a  universal  standard.  Indeed  ex- 
ception is  made  by  careful  typographers.  A  page 
composed  in  the  pleasing  Caslon  italic,  for  exam- 
ple, appears  to  better  advantage  when  spaced  with 
the  four-em,  especially  in  poetry,  where  the  un- 
evenness  is  taken  up  at  the  end  of  the  line.  A 
slightly  compressed  letter  like  the  Century  Roman, 
or  a  close-fitted  font  such  as  the  much  used  Chel- 
tenham, will  also  be  found  to  read  more  comfort- 


ably  if  the  four-em  space  is  used  as  the  standard. 

The  idea  that  because  matter  is  wide-leaded  it 
should  also  be  widely  spaced  between  words,  is  a 
fallacy.  Mechanical  necessity  does  indeed  demand 
wide  spacing  in  occasional  lines,  as  in  overrun- 
ning around  cuts  in  extremely  narrow  measures, 
but  this  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  deliberate 
choice  as  a  standard  of  as  many  as  two  three-em 
spaces,  as  is  frequently  done.  It  is  the  exception 
when  unduly  wide  spacing  does  not  both  hinder 
the  eye  and  mar  the  page.  Certain  it  is  that  the  op- 
portunities for  those  familiar  blemishes  known  as 
"rivers"  are  most  prevalent  in  the  widely  spaced 
page,  and  most  easily  avoided  by  close  spacing. 
The  effect  which  a  page  should  produce  is  that  of 
a  uniform  succession  of  gray  horizontal  lines  of 
greater  or  less  color,  according  to  the  face  used. 
But  such  an  effect  cannot  be  easily  secured  when, 
as  Mr.  Bernard  Shaw  says,  "rivers  of  white  trickle 
down  between  the  words  like  rain-drops  on  the 
window-pane." 

The  development  of  machine  composition,  with 
all  the  mechanical  advantages  it  has  brought,  has 
not  made  for  improved  spacing.  The  automatic 
spacing  devices  seem  to  have  put  normally  com- 
pact spacing  quite  out  of  the  question.  Almost 
any  example  of  machine  composition  will  reveal 
an  unpleasant  openness  between  words.  In  many 
instances  when  the  writer  has  objected  to  abnor- 
mally wide  spacing  in  proofs  submitted  to  him, 


he  has  been  met  with  the  explanation  that  it  was 
"machine  composition. " 

But  regardless  of  the  process  of  typesetting,  it 
is  impossible  to  avoid  an  occasional  open  line,  and 
sometimes  two  or  three  in  succession,  in  a  page 
otherwise  normally  spaced.  Type  is  very  inflex- 
ible; and  alterations  of  copy  are  not  always  pos- 
sible. When  the  word  through,  for  example,  refuses 
to  "  come  in  "  at  the  end  of  a  line,  there  is  noth- 
ing to  do  but  space  the  line  out.  But  the  gaps  in 
such  a  line  should  be  concealed  as  much  as  pos- 
sible by  normally  spacing  the  lines  immediately 
preceding  and  following,  rather  than  by  gradually 
reducing  the  gaps  in  successive  lines  until  the  nor- 
mal is  again  reached.  Even  color  as  a  whole  will 
be  better  preserved  by  the  former  method. 

Whether  divisions  such  as  a-mong  or  no-thing, 
for  example,  or  the  turning  over  of  the  termina- 
tions -ing,  -ed,  should  be  allowed,  or  whether  the 
line  should  be  badly  spaced  to  avoid  them,  offers  a 
choice  of  two  evils.  Office  style  in  general  seems 
to  prefer  bad  spacing  to  word  divisions  of  this  sort, 
though  it  is  hard  to  understand  why.  The  degree 
to  which  the  reader  can  be  misled  or  hampered  by 
such  divisions  is  insignificant,  and  is  not  to  be  com- 
pared with  the  hampering  of  the  eye  and  marring 
of  the  page  with  the  wide  gaps  occasioned  by  keep- 
ing the  words  whole.  The  placing  of  hyphens  at 
the  end  of  lines  is  in  most  printing-houses  gov- 
erned by  "office  style."  The  rule  is  established, 

6 


let  us  say,  that  divisions  shall  not  occur  in  more 
than  three  lines  in  succession.  Some  printers  go 
as  far  as  to  reduce  the  number  allowed  to  one. 
No  recognition  is  given  to  the  fact  that  what  will 
be  applicable  to  one  type  or  measure  will  be  far 
from  appropriate  for  another.  A  page  may  be  set 
in  nonpareil  in,  say,  twenty-four  picas  measure, 
without  the  necessity  for  a  single  division.  But 
on  the  other  hand  a  page  of  twelve-point  or  larger, 
in  a  column  ten  picas  wide,  may  demand  as  many 
as  four  or  even  six  successive  divisions  to  make  it 
space  comfortably.  It  would  seem  therefore  that 
no  rule  should  be  laid  down  as  to  the  number  of 
hyphens  in  succession  which  may  be  allowed; 
but  rather  that  the  matter  should  be  allowed  to 
take  care  of  itself.  It  is  true  that  a  row  of  hy- 
phens at  the  end  of  successive  lines  is  not  entirely 
pleasing,  though  after  all  it  is  but  mildly  defective 
as  compared  with  a  page  or  column  badly  spaced 
to  avoid  divisions,  and  may  therefore  be  regarded 
as  the  less  of  the  two  evils.  Further  proof  is  of- 
fered in  the  finest,  most  dignified  and  most  per- 
manent examples  of  typography  that  have  been 
produced.  It  should  be  the  attitude  of  typograph- 
ers that  even  spacing  is  a  thing  to  be  preserved  and 
not  to  be  violated,  and  that  the  hyphen  is  a  most 
convenient  help  to  this  end. 

Certain  other  points,  in  themselves  trivial,  but 
nevertheless  essential  to  good  typography,  should 
be  mentioned.  These  are  the  treatment  of  space 


between  sentences;  between  words  whose  spacing 
is  modified  by  the  sloping  inward  or  outward  of 
its  end-letters;  and  between  the  word  and  the 
punctuation  mark. 

The  best  typographers  have  already  discovered 
that  there  is  no  good  reason  for  following  the 
practice  of  inserting  a  full  em-quad  between  sen- 
tences. As  punctuation  the  em-quad  is  really  su- 
perfluous, since  the  presence  of  the  period  and 
capital  provide  sufficient  emphasis  over  the  spac- 
ing between  other  words  in  the  line  to  mark  the 
new  sentence.  Further  the  em-quad  is  productive 
of  white  "holes,"  which  do  not  contribute  to  the 
attractiveness  of  the  page.  Cases  are  especially 
numerous  in  magazine  advertisements  where  def- 
erence to  this  traditional  use  of  the  em-quad  has 
upset  the  spacing  of  whole  paragraphs. 

That  discrimination  should  be  used  in  the  a- 
mount  of  space  between  words  whose  end-letters 
overhang  ( f  j ),  and  those  whose  end- 
letters  slope  away  ( y  w ),  or  where  the 

comma  is  used,  seems  too  obvious  to  need  men- 
tioning. And  that  careful  typography  demands 
the  placing  of  a  thin  space  before  the  colon  and 
semicolon,  and  the  interrogation  and  exclamation 
marks,  seems  also  unnecessary  to  explain,  since 
every  apprentice  in  type  composition  is  supposed 
to  be  taught  these  things.  But  one  often  sees 
evidence  of  their  neglect  even  in  the  typography 
of  books  which  aim  at  perfection. 
8 


Whether  or  not  the  points  we  have  just  consid- 
ered be  observed  in  the  composition  of  reading 
matter,  their  importance  must  be  recognized  in 
display  composition.  Especially  is  this  true  in  the 
case  of  magazine  advertisements,  in  which  the  cost 
of  bringing  type  to  the  nicest  possible  adjustment 
is  as  nothing  compared  to  the  value  of  the  space 
occupied. 

The  fundamental  principle  to  be  followed  in 
spacing  type  is,  that  since  the  spacing  of  words 
concerns  the  direction  in  which  the  eye  moves 
when  reading,  only  as  much  space  as  is  sufficient 
to  distinguish  one  word  from  another  shall  be  used. 

The  liberties  which  the  early  English  printers, 
notably  Caxton,  took  with  abbreviations,  elisions, 
and  alterations  in  spelling,  gave  them  a  ready 
means  of  securing  uniformity  of  spacing  such  as 
is  no  longer  available.  But  whoever  wishes  to  be 
convinced  that  for  the  modern  printer  the  capacity 
for  taking  pains  is  a  very  good  substitute  for  these 
devices,  may  study  with  profit  the  productions  of 
such  men  as  Updike,  Rogers  and  Gilliss. 

Leading,  or  line-spacing,  as  it  may  be  called,  is 
the  adjustment  of  space  between  lines  of  type  by 
means  of  thin  strips  of  lead,  brass,  card  or  paper. 
The  use  of  leading  should  not  be  regarded,  as  it  so 
often  is  to  the  detriment  of  appearance,  as  a  con- 
venient device  for  correcting  bad  guesses  as  to  the 
proper  sizes  of  type  for  a  given  space,  but  rather 
as  a  most  useful  means  of  regulating  the  legibility 


and  color  value  of  the  composed  masses  of  type. 

In  display  composition,  especially  in  those  most 
difficult  of  all  forms,  the  title-page  and  the  letter- 
head, the  only  principle  which  it  seems  can  be 
laid  down  as  belonging  to  the  subject  of  leading 
is  that  uniformity  rather  than  diversity  in  the 
spacing  of  closely  related  lines  is  desirable.  This  is 
not  a  uniformity  as  to  points  but  as  the  eye  sees  it. 

With  reference  to  reading  matter  as  distin- 
guished from  display,  it  goes  without  saying  that 
uniformity  of  leading  is  essential  in  a  page  or 
block  of  matter  that  is  continuous  and  of  one  size 
and  face;  but  whether  a  page  should  be  solid,  or 
single-  or  wide-leaded,  can  only  be  determined  by 
the  character  of  face,  the  length  of  line,  the  rela- 
tion of  type  mass  to  margins,  and  whether  reading 
ease  or  color  value  is  the  primary  aim. 

To  illustrate  the  value  of  uniformity  in  lead- 
ing, let  us  take  for  example  the  case  of  a  catalogue 
or  booklet  in  which  the  reading  matter  begins  a 
new  subject  and  varies  in  length  on  each  page. 
The  ideal  way  to  make  pages  of  this  character  fill 
out  to  a  uniform  length  is  of  course  to  add  to  or 
cut  from  the  copy  or  the  proof.  Where  this  can- 
not be  done,  however,  there  should  be  no  attempt 
to  pad  out  the  short  pages  with  extra  leads.  The 
effect  of  non-uniform  leading  is  offensive,  partic- 
ularly on  facing  pages.  A  left-hand  page,  for  in- 
stance, set  in  solid  ten-point,  with  its  companion 
or  facing  page  in  the  same  type  opened  out  with 
10 


two-point  leads,  produces  a  violation  of  sym- 
metry which  is  rarely  necessary.  The  simplest, 
most  obvious  and  best  treatment  for  pages  of  this 
sort  is,  first,  to  have  one  common  point  of  "sink- 
age  "  from  the  top;  second,  by  all  means  to  pre- 
serve the  uniformity  of  leading;  and  third,  to  per- 
mit all  pages  to  end  as  they  will  by  putting  the 
extra  space  at  the  bottom. 

Assuming  that  the  maximum  of  reading  ease 
is  sought,  it  may  be  said  in  general  that  long 
lines  and  heavy  lines  require  more  space  between 
them  than  short  and  light  ones.  In  all  cases,  the 
general  effect  of  a  page  should  show  more  space 
between  lines  than  between  words,  though  in  spite 
of  the  obviousness  of  this  fact,  it  is  very  common 
to  find  pages  which  appear  to  have  been  com- 
posed as  though  intended  to  "read  down"  and 
"read  up,"  like  a  time-table. 

A  line  of  type  containing  more  than  twelve 
words  may  be  considered  a  long  line,  whether  it 
be  in  agate  or  in  six-line  pica.  The  best  reading 
length  for  a  line  of  type  is  from  seven  to  ten 
words,  and  to  extend  the  line  beyond  this  normal 
length  sets  a  task  upon  the  eye.  In  lines  of  ex- 
cessive length,  such  as  are  occasionally  found  in 
magazine  pages,  documents  and  advertisements, 
the  eye  has  difficulty  in  finding  its  way  back  to 
the  beginning  of  the  next  line,  a  difficulty  which 
can  be  lessened  by  wider  leading. 

Speaking  generally,  there  is  scarcely  any  type 

1 1 


face,  heavy  or  light,  which  in  point  of  readability 
is  at  its  best  when  set  solid.  Usually  the  addition 
of  a  two-point  lead  is  considered  necessary  to 
bring  the  type  to  a  comfortable  adjustment.  Were 
it  not  that  the  consideration  of  space  economy  fre- 
quently makes  it  necessary  to  reduce  the  amount 
of  white  between  lines  to  an  absolute  minimum, 
types  would  be  cast  with  more  "shoulder"  and 
then  to  set  type  solid  would  be  to  set  it  normally. 

But  one  or  two  exceptions  to  the  generaliza- 
tion that  all  type  faces  appear  to  best  advantage 
when  leaded,  may  well  be  made.  Take  for  ex- 
ample a  book  page,  or  a  straight-matter  advertise- 
ment occupying  the  whole  of  a  magazine  page. 
Either  of  these,  set  solid  in  Old  Style  Antique  of 
perhaps  ten-point  (or,  as  it  would  have  been  ten 
years  ago,  in  Jenson),  will  have  a  most  satisfying 
vigor  of  color,  and  will  be  found,  if  carefully 
spaced  in  other  respects,  to  be  normally  readable. 
However,  it  does  not  follow,  because  a  particular 
face  like  Old  Style  Antique  composes  well  solid, 
that  any  heavy  type  will  do  likewise.  In  fact,  the 
majority  of  heavy  faces  are  not  at  all  to  be  in- 
cluded in  the  above  exception. 

Another  exception,  which  so  far  from  being 
merely  allowable  is  emphatically  desirable,  is  in 
the  use  of  Blackletter  or  "Old  English/'  Take 
for  example  the  popular  representative  known  as 
Priory  Text ;  one  would  not  think  of  using  this, 
a  purely  decorative  type  in  Anglo-Saxon  eyes,  for 
12 


advertisements,  except  in  an  occasional  line.  But 
in  its  appropriate  place,  the  book  page,  or  in  any 
of  the  primarily  decorative  forms  of  printing, 
Blackletter  gives  a  very  rich  effect.  There  is,  in 
fact,  but  one  way  to  handle  this  type,  which  is 
to  allow  an  absolute  minimum  of  white  space,  be- 
tween both  words  and  lines.  As  its  name  implies, 
Blackletter,  exactly  the  opposite  of  Roman,  is  the 
style  in  which  the  black  of  the  face  exceeds  the 
white  between  the  parts  of  the  letter.  Therefore, 
being  a  decorative  letter,  its  character  should  be 
emphasized  by  compact  spacing.  As  a  demon- 
stration of  this  fact,  one  has  only  to  examine  a 
page  of  the  Gutenberg  Bible  (or  a  reproduction 
from  it),  printed  from  the  first  type  ever  cut.  This 
is  acknowledged  to  be  the  finest  example  of  Black- 
letter typography  ever  produced,  one  which  four 
centuries  of  typographic  development  and  effort 
have  failed  to  equal.  The  use  of  Blackletter  how- 
ever is  limited,  and  becomes  a  minor  problem 
compared  with  the  many  which  are  presented  in 
the  use  of  Roman  types. 

Printers  are  familiar  with  the  fact  that  it  was 
only  during  the  closing  years  of  the  last  century 
that  the  use  of  heavy  types  as  a  body  letter  came 
again  into  something  like  the  vogue  which  they 
had  enjoyed  at  the  hands  of  the  early  printers,  as 
a  reaction  from  what  William  Morris  considered 
the  deplorable  state  of  typography,  both  as  to  the 
types  in  use  and  their  treatment.  But  Morris  went 


much  farther  than  the  mere  attempt  to  get  the  ef- 
fect he  sought  with  such  types  as  were  at  hand. 
He  designed  new  types, based  on  manuscript  mod- 
els, and  the  splendid  effects  of  rich  color  he  ob- 
tained were  due  quite  as  much  to  this  as  to  their 
compactness  in  spacing. 

Still  another  exception,  and  this  on  the  score 
of  space  economy  rather  than  appearance,  must  be 
made  to  the  objection  to  close  leading.  There  are 
of  course  practical  reasons  for  setting  type  com- 
pactly, for  literally  squeezing  it  into  the  smallest 
possible  space.  In  the  case  of  the  thousand-page 
catalogue,  and  the  small  magazine  advertisement 
at  ninety-eight  dollars  an  inch,  much  considera- 
tion for  white  between  lines  is  not  to  be  expected. 
However,  in  such  cases  legibility  is  still  preserved 
to  a  degree  by  the  use  of  the  clearest  and  sim- 
plest type  face  possible. 

At  the  other  extreme  from  this  solid  massing 
of  type  is  the  wide-leaded  treatment,  also  a  con- 
sistent and  excellent  style.  Provided  due  care  is 
taken  in  adjustment  of  margins  and  in  word-spac- 
ing, extreme  wide  leading  may  be  used  with  good 
effect.  There  is  a  certain  grace  and  sumptuous- 
ness  to  a  wide-leaded  page  when  skilfully  han- 
dled. This  was  the  characteristic  style  of  the 
Eighteenth  Century  French  typographers,  the 
charm  of  whose  books  has  never  been  surpassed. 
But  wide  leading  may  easily  produce  a  slovenly 
result,  as,  in  a  five-by-seven  page  of  ten-point 

14 


opened  with  four  leads,  with  no  more  than  a  half- 
inch  margin  all  around. 

Wide  leading  presupposes  ample  margins,  but, 
as  has  already  been  pointed  out,  does  not  call  for 
wide  word-spacing.  On  the  contrary,  a  page  both 
wide-leaded  and  wide-spaced  between  words  is 
bad.  Such  a  page  appears  to  be  disintegrating,  and 
suggests  that  the  paper,  instead  of  the  type,  is  in- 
tended to  be  read. 

It  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  in  the  direc- 
tion which  the  eye  has  to  follow,  only  as  much 
space  should  be  used  as  is  sufficient  to  distinguish 
one  word  from  another.  For  this  reason,  what- 
ever goes  beyond  this  is  an  interruption  to  the  eye. 
There  should  be  no  alteration  in  the  standard  of 
word-spacing,  whether  the  matter  is  to  be  solid 
or  open.  A  wide-leaded  page  may  well  be  close- 
spaced  between  words,  but  the  reverse  of  this, 
namely,  the  absence  of  leads  in  matter  widely 
spaced,  is  unquestionably  bad. 

It  may  be  remarked  in  passing  that  there  is 
little  scope  for  either  of  these  "styles,"  as  such, 
in  the  advertisement  or  circular.  Both  these  styles 
rae  essentially  of  the  book.  But  it  may  also  be 
observed  that  the  best  fault  (?)  a  type  or  style  of 
handling  can  have  is  that  it  is  bookish.  The  book 
page  presents  the  fundamental  problems  in  ty- 
pography, and  what  will  pass  muster  in  it  is  at 
least  safe  in  any  other  connection,  the  reverse  be- 
ing decidedly  not  true. 

15 


With  reference  to  book  composition,  the  use  of 
leads  has  still  another  aspect.  In  houses  making 
a  specialty  of  this  work,  leads  of  varying  thick- 
ness are  used  such  as  are  practically  unknown  in 
other  work,  as,  for  example,  three-to-pica  and 
ten-to-pica.  For  the  general  run  of  work  the  dif- 
ference in  effect  obtained  by  the  use  of  these  leads 
is  hardly  worth  considering.  Adjustments  finer 
than  those  which  can  be  made  with  one-  and  two- 
point  leads  are  scarcely  ever  required  in  more  than 
a  few  lines,  and  these  can  more  economically  be 
made  with  card.  But  with  book  work  the  case  is 
different.  Here  the  slightest  variation  in  thickness 
of  a  lead  affects  not  only  the  margin  of  the  page, 
but  the  number  of  pages. 

Concerning  the  matter  of  leading,  there  re- 
mains to  be  said  simply  this,  that  neither  very 
close  nor  very  wide  leading  is  necessarily  bad,  and 
that  uniformity,  no  matter  how  many  leads  are 
used,  is  the  cardinal  principle  to  be  observed. 

Indention  is  the  setting  in  from  the  margin  of 
one  or  more  lines  of  type,  or  the  narrowing,  on 
one  or  both  sides,  of  a  portion  of  a  column.  It  is 
not  a  device  for  enhancing  the  appearance  of  a 
page,  but  on  the  contrary  tends  to  detract  from 
its  simplicity  of  outline  and  its  compactness.  In- 
dention has  a  distinct  function  to  perform,  which 
is  to  punctuate,  and  since  type  pages  are  meant  to  be 
read  more  than  to  be  looked  at,  a  certain  amount 
of  this  punctuation  is  necessary. 
16 


The  principal  and  characteristic  use  of  inden- 
tion is  to  mark  the  beginnings  of  paragraphs  in 
reading  matter.  But  it  also  serves  to  distinguish 
certain  styles  of  arrangement  of  headings  and  dis- 
play lines,  as  in  "hanging"  (  )  and  "in- 
verted pyramid"  (  )  indention.  Headings 
set  in  the  latter  style  are  rather  inelegantly  known 
in  newspaper  offices  as  "bags." 

In  addition  to  these  two  particular  uses,  inden- 
tion has  a  more  general  and  less  clearly  defined 
function  in  the  arrangement  of  all  forms  of  dis- 
play and  "broken"  matter. 

Indention  is  the  universal  method  of  indicating 
paragraphs  in  the  regular  forms  of  plain  reading 
matter.  For  ordinary  widths,  as  of  a  book  page 
or  magazine  column,  the  one-em  indention  is 
standard.  Wider  indention  is  never  really  neces- 
sary, though  it  is  common  practice  to  increase  the 
indention  in  matter  of  very  wide  measure. 

In  minor  forms  where  but  few  paragraphs  oc- 
cur, indention  may  for  the  sake  of  effect  be 
omitted,  but  its  omission  in  larger  forms,  such  as 
book  work,  can  rarely  be  regarded  as  other  than 
a  mannerism.  The  safe  procedure  is  to  adopt  for 
office  style  the  long-established  custom  of  one-em 
paragraph  indention,  and  to  depart  from  this  only 
when  out  of  the  range  of  the  larger  and  more 
dignified  forms,  where  a  touch  of  novelty  is  de- 
sirable and  where  it  can  be  introduced  without  ob- 
scuring the  paragraph  and  without  undue  fussing. 


There  are  certain  other  features  which,  in  or- 
der to  preserve  a  clean-cut  page  contour,  may  be 
allowed  to  stand  as  substitutes  for  paragraph  in- 
dention where  paragraphs  are  few.  In  matter  of 
this  sort  the  chance  sometimes  may  be  taken  that 
the  last  line  of  the  preceding  paragraph  will  go 
short,  in  which  case  the  paragraph  is  sufficiently 
punctuated  without  indention.  Paragraphs  may 
also  be  indicated  by  inserting  extra  leads  between 
them  as  a  substitute  for  indention,  though  this 
practice  is  to  be  avoided  in  book  work. 

Another  device  for  avoiding  indention  and  also 
for  securing  even  more  emphasis  than  is  afforded 
by  indention  is  the  insertion  of  the  paragraph 
sign  (Q).  This  maybe  employed  effectively  where 
novelty  is  desirable,  but  its  use  in  modern  print- 
ing of  a  serious  and  dignified  nature  is  not  to  be 
recommended. 

This  principle  of  the  use  of  indention  applies 
to  every  form  of  printed  matter  with  equal  force. 
Since,  as  was  said,  the  use  of  indention  does  not 
enhance  the  appearance  of  a  page,  it  should  be 
used  only  when  it  renders  some  service  as  punc- 
tuation. The  benefit  of  any  doubt  may  safely  be 
given  to  simplicity  of  outline. 

Referring  to  this  matter  of  space  adjustment  as 
a  whole,  and  particularly  to  those  "little  touches" 
which  have  been  mentioned  as  indispensable  to 
perfect  work,  one  general  hint  of  practical  value 
may  be  given.  If  the  proof  submitted  to  you  is 
18 


"choppy"  and  confused  in  appearance  and  requires 
readjustment,  look  first  to  see  what  can  be  done 
to  improve  it  by  the  simpler  expedients.  It  may 
be  that  the  changing  of  a  few  leads,  or  the  weed- 
ing out  of  unnecessary  indentions,  will  work  a 
decided  improvement  and  make  the  page  quiet 
and  simple.  Remember  that  a  lead  can  be  trans- 
posed or  a  quad  shifted  much  more  easily  and 
economically  than  lines  can  be  reset. 

In  conclusion,  it  may  be  well  to  bear  in  mind 
that,  while  work  will  have  some  merit  if  carefully 
spaced,  no  matter  how  ugly  or  inappropriate  the 
type,  the  choicest  type  face  in  the  world  may  have 
its  beauty  or  its  legibility  nullified  by  bad  spacing. 

The  tools  are  not  superior  to  the  workman. 


This  book  has  been  reprinted  from  The  Graphic  Arts 
magazine  of  August,  IQIO,  by  Norman  T.  A.  Munder 
&  Company,  Baltimore.  It  is  sold  by  y.  M.  Bowles, 
5  West  Twenty -eighth  Street,  New  Tork.  The  Currier 
Press  printer  s  mark  on  the  title  page  and  the  initial  on 
page  three  were  drawn  by  Frederic  W.  Goudy.  The  book 
has  been  copyrighted,  IQI2,  by  Everett  R.  Currier 
and  the  edition  is  limited  to  three  hundred  copies 


